gladstone

Between Clinton and Kin Kora there is New Auckland, named after Auckland Creek, the suburb's eastern boundary. The creek was named after the sailing vessel, Lord Auckland, which brought some of the first settlers to Gladsone in 1847. New Auckland was originally a housing estate. Source: www.queenslandplaces.com.au/gladstone-suburbs

In one of the city's industrial areas you'll find the Auckland Creek Environmental Zone which has birdlife, parklands, walking trails and a viewing point for a bat colony. If you want to know where a quarter of Queensland's electricity comes from pop over to the power station for a tour which is close by. Return to the port and your sightseeing tour of Gladstone is done. Source: www.queensland.com/au/en/plan-your-holiday/journeys/p-56b...

In the year of Australia's Federation, Gladstone was a small country town on a glorious seafront, described as 'one of the finest natural harbors in Australia' (Pugh's Almanac 1907). The town seems to have been a thriving commercial and administrative centre. The Post Office Directory 1901 lists: * five hotels, four churches *one bank (Commercial Bank of Sydney), and two newspapers (The Observer and The Advocate). * a State School with 110 pupils, and one run by the Sisters of Mercy (with 150 pupils when it opened in 1900, which became Our Lady, Star of the Sea in 1902). * at least one doctor and one architect, a barrister and a couple of lawyers, numerous tradesmen and businesses, including several saw mills and a manufacturer of aerated water. * a public hospital, a School of Arts, a Chamber of Commerce, a manganese mine, and of course, the Gladstone Meat works. In 1911 electricity came, with the lighting of the Meat works jetty, and by 1916 town supply commenced under a franchise agreement. Roads only slowly improved, and not until 1929 was there any bitumen (Goondoon and Auckland Streets). In 1914 the Harbour Board was formed to be restructured in 1926 to represent Gladstone, Calliope and Miriam Vale communities. In 1926 the Gladstone Butter Factory became the Port Curtis Dairy Association and its first shipment of butter went overseas. In 1920 the CWA built a holiday house on Barney Point, and in 1936 opened their own rooms in town. The first open air theatre was opened in 1922, and in 1927 the QATB and Fire Brigade moved into a purpose-built accommodation in Goondoon Street. The following year the British Imperial Oil Company occupied premises at Auckland Point. Source: gragm.qld.gov.au/media/1017/waves-of-settlement-1901-1939...

Gladstone was originally known as Port Curtis, which was named by Matthew Flinders in 1802 after Sir Roger Curtis who had been Commandant at the Cape of Good Hope when he had called there for victuals and resupply. Port Curtis enjoyed a brief three months of temporary settlement as the administrative centre of the colony of North Australia (1847). George Barney (Barney's Point, Gladstone) commanded the settlement but a change of government in England led to its disbandment. Within a few years pastoral occupation of the hinterland brought about pressure for the port to be a livestock shipping outlet. In 1853 the town of Gladstone was surveyed and the first sale of town and suburban allotments took place the following year. Gladstone served well as a harbor, but the absence of plentiful water and agricultural land hindered its development. A gold rush at nearby Canoona (1858) then overshadowed Gladstone for a period. Although declared a municipality in 1863, Gladstone's growth was slow: a customs house was erected in 1860, the first school in 1864, a Presbyterian church in 1869 and Catholic and Church of England churches in 1874. Gladstone's wharves were at Auckland Point (named after the ship Lord Auckland that brought the first European settlers in 1847), where Auckland Inlet enters Port Curtis. The short waterway involved navigating a strait that was obstructed by submerged rock and passable only at high tide. Intermittent blasting and dredging went on until the 1890s in an attempt to improve access through the passage, with less than adequate results. Funds were spent on alternative harbors at Port Alma and Rockhampton, leaving Gladstone's population convinced they were being unfairly overlooked. Gladstone remained convinced that it had the best potential shipping harbour in central Queensland. The state government appointed the Gladstone Harbour Board in 1914, and the town formed its own Gladstone Harbour League to lobby the Railways minister for fairer haulage rates and for freight from surrounding shires. Progress was slow, and the town's economic mainstays remained the Port Curtis dairy factory (which achieved maximum production during the 1940s-50s) and the meat works. Tourism was still a distant prospect, although Heron Island emerged as a local holiday destination in the 1930s. Flying boats, bound for Singapore and connections to England called at Auckland Inlet from 1935 and a land aerodrome, jointly backed by Gladstone and Calliope Shire, opened in 1956. Source: www.queenslandplaces.com.au/gladstone